These Characters Are “Still Very Captivating”- Persona 3 Reload’s Takuya Yamaguchi and Ryota Niitsuma Talk About Why They’re Not Changing Character Stories

The pressure to nail Persona 3 Reload is, suffice to say, great. Persona 3 is a beloved game, with branching releases sporting different features that fans have grown attached to.

It’s not just that- the original Persona 3 created the template that is associated with modern Persona games- from quirky Velvet Room attendants to social links and managing your time. You’re talking about a game that was integral to so many people’s childhoods and teen years, and reintroducing it many years later with a fresh coat of pain

At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, we spoke to Takuya Yamaguchi, Director of Persona 3 Reload and Ryota Niitsuma, producer on the same title about bringing the legendary Persona title out of the Dark Hour and into the year 2023.

Bringing It Back

So, the first question on everyone’s lips is usually a simple “But why this one?”. Considering there was a re-release of Persona 3 Portable literally last year, having the remake in development at the same time would have seemed like a bizarre choice.

Ryota says it was simply a matter of fan demand, all things considered.

“P3 was a huge Turning point for the persona series as a whole”, he explains.

“Not only that, every year we conduct a player and user survey to get a better understanding of what the market wants, what the fan base wants, and what the community wants”, he says. “And every time we notice that a lot of people, players and fans of ATLUS’ many titles among which the Persona series were always P3, was a leading request. Taking this into consideration, we started to make the effort to remake this title and decided to settle on Persona 3 Reload”.

In recent years, there’s been some sort of theological debate over how much a remake is allowed to change. For some, revisiting an old title means putting a new spin on it, or creating a pseudo-sequel of sorts. With ATLUS, however, they seem to be taking the safer approach- you’re getting the story you first fell in love with all those years ago.

“From the story perspective, there have been also some improvements made to accommodate new players as well as returning players. The overall story arc, however, is true to the original P3, aside from a couple of improvements. So we’re definitely sure and confident to say that a lot of users will be able to enjoy this remake and then have a great experience as well”, Takuya says.

“The main scenario of characters are still very captivating and as such there doesn’t really mean much to upgrade to these elements”, Ryota clarifies.

A More Fun Experience

While the story content is largely unchanged, the two stressed repeatedly the actual moment-to-moment button-pressing would not harken back to the PS2 days. Let’s face it, the Persona series has made some good strides in the titles since, and they’re determined to build on that for Persona 3 Reload. Rest assured though, at it’s core it’s still the same Persona gameplay you’ve come to love.

“The base system has not really changed as compared to the previous Persona series, so fans returning to the series won’t struggle adjusting or playing Persona 3 Reload”, Takuya says. “There has been, however, a lot of focus and attention given to UI and usability for Persona 3 Reload”.

“As compared to previous titles, the onboarding process should be a lot smoother for newcomers. In addition to that, they’re fine-tuning it with a lot of focus from the ATLUS team to really make sure that everybody will be able to use and enjoy it with leisure”, he proudly shares.

There are also changes coming to Tartarus- the game’s dungeon-crawling portion. When you talk about parts of the game that could do with a QOL touch-up, you could probably guess that Tartarus is a commonly-discussed topic. In fact, according to Takuya, that’s pretty much why they’re adding new features to it.

“We received a lot of feedback from the players and communities regarding Tartarus”, Takuya says. “In order to honor this feedback, we really gave it our all in improving it. So we now have added elements such as dashing and a lot of other features that would improve the entire experience and make it a lot more interesting, a lot more diverse so that it can’t become boring as you played it for in the many hours”.

New Threads For The S.E.E.S. Gang

Of course, take one look at any of the key art for Persona 3 Reload and you might notice there’s some pretty big differences in the uniforms worn by the main characters.

Takuya says that part of this was about having a part of Reload they could really make their own without needing to do something drastic like compromising the overall tone and message of Persona 3.

“We didn’t really want to make 100% copy of the original project, even if it was one of our Turning Point titles, it would have been a bit boring and uninteresting for the panels to play the exact same rendition of the title”, Takuya says.

“Even though it might seem like a simple decision, but making, even the slightest changes took a lot of courage out of us. And taking a decision to change and alternate from the original was probably one of the biggest challenges and models that we had to overcome at the early stage”.

“When we were conceptualizing for Persona 3 Reload, we were trying to find a different way for the title to really stand out on its own, despite being a remake. We were looking at different aspects, we thought that potentially, the New combat uniforms might be a route that we could take in order to show and emphasize the different character and personalities and really identify characters and to visualize it from the very get go”, he says.

“New combat uniforms was then spoken amongst the team. A couple of drafts and rough design sketches were provided and these design sketches actually really solidified with the idea of bringing the new uniform alive for the S.E.E.S. team”, he continues.

“In addition to that, the combat uniforms in the original Persona 3 just added a simple arm band to the actual school uniforms. However, this time it gave us the opportunity to really let it stand out on its own. As I said, the uniform was then added on with more of a sporty feel, something that you would really see on the combat floor. The outfit was then refined and finalized, and now this is the final design that you’re able to see now. It seems like they have received a positive response”.

New Beats To Baby, Baby, Baby To

This attitude also gets explored a little in the game’s music- while it does feature new music, Takuya explained it wasn’t about trying to make it “Fit in” with the acid funk beats of Persona 5, but rather was a chance to just bring something new to the game.

“So when it comes to the music, of course it’s very important for the persona series of us to focus on the soundtrack throughout the gameplay”, Takuya explains. “However, the inspiration for Persona 3 reload did not really come from P4 or P5”.

“We actually took a lot of inspiration from the original P3 when we revisited the soundtrack from the original P3 and noticed that it was still very timely. However, it did need some refining to fit the modern kind of musical aspects”, he continues. “So there are kind of touch ups here and there to make it Sound a more fresh and more lively alongside the graphical improvements”.

Of course, not every fan-requested feature made its way back to Reload. Many fans might remember Persona 3 Portable as being the game to introduce a female protagonist to Persona 3- a feature that some fans have been asking to see again with Reload. Unfortunately, Ryota says that since this game is specifically a send up to the base Persona 3, they won’t be implementing that feature.

“When we were thinking about Persona 3 Reload, we’re really focused on Persona 3, not Persona 3 Portable, not FES, just the original Persona 3 and how to really perfect that remake. And because of this at the current moment, there’s no female protagonists that arrive later on in the latter titles”, he says.

Parting Shot

With Persona 3 Reload launching next year, Both Takuya and Ryota are excited for fans to get to explore Persona 3 Reload together.

“Thank you very much For being very patient with us. We really are, have the final cusp of development For this Persona 3 title. In addition to this, we are happy to announce that this will be the first title ever new RPG title from the Persona mainland series to have a global simultaneous sale”, Takuya says.

“I think it gives the community a really good opportunity to hold hands together and look forward to the launch date together as well. And then hopefully we’ll be able to have a big celebration for the launch”, he continues. “We really do have very little more to go, but once we are completed, we’ll be proud to present Persona 3 reload to everybody in Southeast Asia and across the world”.

“I’ve been able to hear feedback. From community and Southeast Asian gamers, and the fact that they also really enjoy Persona is great to hear”, Ryota says.

“As mentioned,  launch isn’t really that far away and I hope you’ll be able to be a lttle more patient with us as we prepare for launch And make final refinements and then we hope that you look forward to launch date, and thank you again to the ATLUS team”.

Our thanks to Takuya and Ryota, who took time out of their busy schedules at TGS to chat all things Persona 3 Reload with us as well as SEGA, for setting up the interview. The game launches on February 2nd 2024, and will feature visual upgrades like 4K support, 60fps on some platforms and redone models for all the game’s characters.

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